Is called Nikolina Radunovic, is 26 years old and now lives in Podgorica. And Nikolina explains: “I walk, feel, love, just like anyone else. And I can do it thanks to Sinisa Mihajlovic“. Yes, the champion who disappeared too early, just a few days ago, saved her life. Nikolina was sick as a very small child, she had a very serious heart problem. And Sinisa has done everything to help her, offering financial support to her family, also helped by her teammates. And so, twenty-one years ago, Nikolina was operated on, successfully, and her life changed.
After his death, Radunovic wanted to remember Mihajlovic on social media. And she spent words full of pain, emotion and turmoil. “I heard everything, I can’t believe it… Miha, my savior, is gone, it’s not possible… It’s terrible, I can’t take it anymore“, she wrote on Facebook. When she had heart surgery, Nikolina was only four and a half years old: hers was a congenital heart malformation and she was operated on in Rome, at the Bambino Gesù hospital.
In July 2019, when Sinisa revealed that she had leukemia, Nikolina wrote on Facebook again: “The first news I read today concerns Sinisa Mihajlovic. ‘He is sick’, they say, ‘he is fighting for his life’. My Sinisa? Sinisa, whose photo takes up my phone screen? Sinisa man, footballer, patriot, humanist, father, husband and great in every respect. Nineteen years ago you made my life possible. You made it possible for me to be who I am now, to live the life I live, to walk the paths I walk, to feel, to want, to love. I wish I could help you like you helped me. But I can not. My only help will be in prayers, for another victory of yours. I will pray to God, in the hope that he will not forget your generosity and will reach out to you just as you have extended it to thousands of people in your half century. Miha, the legend… Miha, the king… Miha…”. Words, those of Nikolina, which explain without the need for any other comment who and what Mihajlovic was for her.
